The blade edge should be very crisp for the most part unless you are aiming for a more stylaized piece, but it seems like your'e aiming for more realism.
is the light grey on the edge of the knife wear? I think its maybe a bit too uniform and should be broken up a bit. The scratches seem a little random too especially on the metal part of the handle
also on the metal there is like a white squiggle? it looks like someone has put a line of pva glue all over it. I think you should have another look at the metal texture maybe?
I am loving that wood though!
Im sorry for sort of ripping into your model a bit there, i do like it though
It's basically just a greyscale map where white is super shine and black is not shiney at all! so all those scratches will be be alot lighter than the rest of it because then thy will pop more.
a good starting point is taking your diffuse and desaturating it before messing with the levels
It's definitely not bad for a first timer - Excellent, actually. However, yes, there is enormous room for improvement on your part.
1) Have you tried baking out an Ambient Occlusion map? It looks like you MAY have (or you just used the burn tool in photoshop?), but if you haven't, learn how to bake out an AO map to get a good start / Base for beginning your textures on.
2) In terms of modeling, why not post your wireframes so that we can see if your topology could flow a bit better? Even though it is such a small prop, it doesn't hurt to learn good edge flow for whatever you're making...
3) Upon much closer inspection to your texture(s), it seems like you made some squiggles to act as a sort of scratch / wear and tear to your diffuse map there...That could be done with a little more care and realism. It is all too consistent on every area of the blade and definitely looks like you just took it into photoshop / paint and made some squiggles and called it done. Try to have as much variance as you can on many parts of the blade, and try to make it contrast a lot more in different areas. This all goes for the handle as well...Add some VARIANCE / CONTRAST!
4) I'm not sure what the huge white part is next to your diffuse texture there, but I hope it isn't your spec map! Whenever you make a spec map, it definitely should NEVER be a totally solid white or black texture map. Once again, it should have a lot of VARIANCE and CONTRAST; And it should compliment any normal maps you may have baked out from this model (if you did a high-poly?). Especially on edges, like the sharpest part of the knife....you could give that a different level of specularity than the rest of the blade because it is....well, it's different than the rest of the blade! It's the sharpest part, and therefore light may behave differently when reflecting in that area (which then leads into GLOSS map, which you should not underestimate. Look up Specularity Level / Gloss maps btw...)
5) Are you using a normal map at all? If not, that's fine for an object like this, but I don't see how it couldn't help, even if minutely. Maybe even a regular white/gray/black bump map could suffice!
6) I think that's all I have to say for now!
Keep it up, and MAKE THE IMPROVEMENTS! I will come back to check it out!
It's basically just a greyscale map where white is super shine and black is not shiney at all! so all those scratches will be be alot lighter than the rest of it because then thy will pop more.
a good starting point is taking your diffuse and desaturating it before messing with the levels
SaferDan is right - However, don't get into the mindset that a spec map is strictly black or white. that's not the way professionals usually make a spec map to be. Professionals will add different "tinges" and "hints" of color to their spec maps to make the light behave more interestingly when light reflects off certain areas of the model. For metal, a good color may be to use a very slight BLUE-ish tint, with some noise added on top to break up the consistency.
It almost sounds like I'm talking about a recipe for a dish when you're talking about 3d stuff doesn't it? lol...
Replies
is the light grey on the edge of the knife wear? I think its maybe a bit too uniform and should be broken up a bit. The scratches seem a little random too especially on the metal part of the handle
also on the metal there is like a white squiggle? it looks like someone has put a line of pva glue all over it. I think you should have another look at the metal texture maybe?
I am loving that wood though!
Im sorry for sort of ripping into your model a bit there, i do like it though
whats the size of the texture map?
It's basically just a greyscale map where white is super shine and black is not shiney at all! so all those scratches will be be alot lighter than the rest of it because then thy will pop more.
a good starting point is taking your diffuse and desaturating it before messing with the levels
1) Have you tried baking out an Ambient Occlusion map? It looks like you MAY have (or you just used the burn tool in photoshop?), but if you haven't, learn how to bake out an AO map to get a good start / Base for beginning your textures on.
2) In terms of modeling, why not post your wireframes so that we can see if your topology could flow a bit better? Even though it is such a small prop, it doesn't hurt to learn good edge flow for whatever you're making...
3) Upon much closer inspection to your texture(s), it seems like you made some squiggles to act as a sort of scratch / wear and tear to your diffuse map there...That could be done with a little more care and realism. It is all too consistent on every area of the blade and definitely looks like you just took it into photoshop / paint and made some squiggles and called it done. Try to have as much variance as you can on many parts of the blade, and try to make it contrast a lot more in different areas. This all goes for the handle as well...Add some VARIANCE / CONTRAST!
4) I'm not sure what the huge white part is next to your diffuse texture there, but I hope it isn't your spec map! Whenever you make a spec map, it definitely should NEVER be a totally solid white or black texture map. Once again, it should have a lot of VARIANCE and CONTRAST; And it should compliment any normal maps you may have baked out from this model (if you did a high-poly?). Especially on edges, like the sharpest part of the knife....you could give that a different level of specularity than the rest of the blade because it is....well, it's different than the rest of the blade! It's the sharpest part, and therefore light may behave differently when reflecting in that area (which then leads into GLOSS map, which you should not underestimate. Look up Specularity Level / Gloss maps btw...)
5) Are you using a normal map at all? If not, that's fine for an object like this, but I don't see how it couldn't help, even if minutely. Maybe even a regular white/gray/black bump map could suffice!
6) I think that's all I have to say for now!
Keep it up, and MAKE THE IMPROVEMENTS! I will come back to check it out!
SaferDan is right - However, don't get into the mindset that a spec map is strictly black or white. that's not the way professionals usually make a spec map to be. Professionals will add different "tinges" and "hints" of color to their spec maps to make the light behave more interestingly when light reflects off certain areas of the model. For metal, a good color may be to use a very slight BLUE-ish tint, with some noise added on top to break up the consistency.
It almost sounds like I'm talking about a recipe for a dish when you're talking about 3d stuff doesn't it? lol...
i just didn't want to confuse him as he didn't seem to know how to do one